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Coco Gauff has invested in women’s basketball. Unrivaled is a 3-on-3 basketball league announced in 2023 and founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Each player participating in its first season was granted equity in the league, setting a precedence in sports. “For years, women have relied heavily on off-court sponsorships for a majority of their income,” Stewart said in a press release shared with AFROTECH™ . “With Unrivaled , we’re revolutionizing the game by prioritizing investments in our stars and ensuring their on-court performance is reflected in their pay.” Collier added: “With the growing popularity of women’s basketball and the WNBA, this is an opportunity for us to extend our visibility into the traditional basketball season. Breanna and I set out to create a league that would change the way women’s sports are viewed and ultimately how sports leagues operate. We may have had the vision, but this isn’t just our league – it belongs to the players, and...
Several Black women-owned businesses are making their way to JFK airport. According to TRBusiness, six small, women-owned businesses based in New York will now have a new home at Terminal 8 (T8) due to a $125 million redevelopment program. They were selected through an accelerator program launched by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) Airports. The chosen entrepreneurs were also offered adaptable deal structures and smaller storefront spaces to minimize entry hurdles and lower design expenses. “Helping local businesses access concessions opportunities at Terminal 8 is an asset for our passengers, who will enjoy products unique to New York that are made and sold by local artisans and vendors,” said Dominic Lowe, US chief operating officer of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, per TRBusiness. “These six local women bring the energy and enthusiasm of a small business owner to Terminal 8 while offering one-of-a-kind products, which are made right here in New York.” Lowe added, “Working with the...
A Black-owned pharmacy has opened in Toledo, OH. After seeing health disparities within communities during his residency with Kroger, pharmacist Anthony Pattin was driven to provide better access to underserved citizens. At the time, Pattin had already completed an undergraduate degree in pharmaceutical sciences and a PharmD from the University of Toledo, Toledo Blade reports. “One of my first projects was looking at African-Americans’ perceptions of vaccines,” he told the outlet. “I learned a lot. One thing is, not everyone feels the same way. I had a group of people who wanted vaccines but said ‘As a matter of fact, when I go to the pharmacy, they don’t offer it,’ and that’s how I found out that there are some pharmacies, even in their community, that didn’t offer that service. So that was a disparity — that you were saying that maybe they don’t want the service, but they don’t have it available.” While Pattin took note, the idea for a pharmacy was catalyzed by an elderly neighbor...
Popular streamer IShowSpeed isn’t afraid to turn down lucrative deals. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, IShowSpeed is a dedicated streamer who made various sacrifices to focus on his craft. One of those sacrifices included moving into his father’s home after receiving an ultimatum from his mother: quit streaming or leave her home. “Once I start something, I’m not stopping,” he mentioned on “Club Shay Shay” at the time. The decision has paid off, and the streamer holds no ill feelings toward his mother. In fact, he later bought a home for her after earning his first $1 million at 16. Today, IShowSpeed has 33.8 million subscribers on one of his YouTube channels alone, as well as an additional 27 million followers on Instagram (at the time of this writing). He also just won Streamer of the Year at the Streamer Awards 2024. While it is unclear what his exact earnings are, he confirmed on Complex’s “360 With Speedy (Morman)” that the $10 million net worth that comes up in a Google...
Shaw-naé Dixon is behind a popular soul food restaurant in Staten Island, NY. Dixon’s interest in cooking dates back to her time in the kitchen with her grandmother, her website reads. She would continue to nurture her skills at church and a local soup kitchen. “My grandmother was a dietician for over 40 years, and I know that my grandmother taught me a lot of different recipes when I was growing u p,” Dixon said during an interview with Bon Appétit . “ And it wasn’t necessarily about the recipes and the food, it was about the technique and making sure that I could feed a lot of people at one time. “ In her adult years, Dixon first pursued a career in education. For over a decade, she was a teacher. However, she was pushed into her true calling of becoming a restaurateur after spending time in a coma. “Following a very, I won’t say difficult time, but a pivotal time in my life when I was in a coma, when I woke up, I said, ‘ Chase your legacy and not the luxury.’ Opening up a...
Reebok is making a comeback in the world of basketball. On Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, Reebok and the WNBA announced a multi-year agreement designating the global sports culture brand as an authorized footwear supplier for the league. “The WNBA continues to grow with iconic brands, and we look forward to Reebok joining us in driving women’s basketball to new heights and inspiring the next generation,” WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison said in a statement. “As we continue to capitalize on increased brand awareness, our work with Reebok is another step in bringing more fans to the game.” Reebok has been producing basketball shoes for women since the 1980s. Throughout the 1990s, the brand sponsored some of the best women’s collegiate basketball teams in the country and, in 1997, launched a signature shoe for WNBA player Rebecca Lobo. It’s no secret that Nike is the leading shoe brand among NBA and WNBA players, but other brands have a presence. As of October 2024, six active WNBA...
The most profitable shoe deals in the NBA, in total, generate billions of dollars for the sneaker industry. And yet, the most profitable shoe deal on this list goes to a man who hasn’t stepped on the basketball court in more than two decades. “Wholesale revenue at Nike’s Jordan Brand subsidiary hit $3.14 billion in the fiscal year ending May 2019, up 10% from 2018,” reports Forbes, who compiled the initial list of the most profitable shoe deals in the NBA today. “ MJ’s annual take is an estimated $130 million, four times more than that of James, the No. 2 earner, with $32 million. Arguably, 16 years after he last laced up his own high tops on the court, more Jordan-branded shoes and apparel are being sold than the signature lines of every other current NBA player. Combined.” The business of sneakers is a profitable one and one that has made millions of dollars for basketball players that have been lucky enough to get into it. In fact, according to Forbes, the vast majority of NBA...
In 1997, Tracy McGrady was among the top NBA recruits entering the draft. Coming straight out of North Carolina’s Mt. Zion Christian Academy, the 18-year-old athlete initially dreamed of playing college basketball before entering the draft. However, a massive endorsement deal changed the game. Before his plans to join the University of Kentucky team, McGrady was offered a six-year, $12 million shoe endorsement deal with adidas. “Tracy McGrady has never played a college game, but the 18-year-old basketball star is making a $12 million leap into the big leagues. The money is coming, not from an NBA team, but from Adidas,” AP News reported on June 19, 1997. Over two decades later, the agreement between McGrady and the popular shoe company could end.
One thing is for certain, and two things are for sure, sports fans will spend almost any amount of money to get their hands on an authentic trading card. Back by popular demand is a rare LeBron James Triple Logoman card that just sold at an auction for a whopping $2.4 million. According to Bleacher Report, the card features the actual NBA logo patch from three of his jerseys with all three of the franchises that he’s played for throughout the course of his career. Therefore, it includes patches from his uniform of where it all started with the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as those from the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers.
You may think that the Harlem Globetrotters are a “joke” team — a team that turns the sport of basketball into a Broadway show, with funny spins and clownish faces and a treat for young children who may be too small to experience the full fury of an NBA game. But you could not be more wrong. In fact, if players like LeBron James, the late Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan can command millions — and billions — of dollars in salaries and endorsements, it’s because the Harlem Globetrotters laid the groundwork to make it so. In 1926, basketball — like the rest of the United States — was segregated, and Black players were not allowed to join the NBA. From that terrible time in American history, though, came basketball teams like the Black Fives and what was then known as the Savoy Big Five. Born on the South Side of Chicago, Tommy Brookins — according to WTTW — led a series of players to walk off from the Savoy Big Five in the midst of a dispute in 1928. They then formed a team of their...
NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie — the self-proclaimed “tech guy with a jumper” — and tech entrepreneur Solo Ceesay are taking their talents to the podcasting world. Today, Dinwiddie and Ceesay — also the co-founders of Calaxy app — announced their New Money podcast in partnership with CoinDesk and Spotify in a press release exclusively provided to AfroTech. “With the launch of New Money, we are catapulting traditionally boring conversations on finances into the realm of mainstream entertainment. We have given way to colloquial conversations about new methods of wealth creation in an effort to produce something that could resonate with all audiences,” said Ceesay in a press release. While the now co-hosts are entering new territory, they aren’t new to the “creator economy” as their company, Calaxy, is an open social marketplace for creators by creators. The decentralized social media app brings creators and fans closer through various features while unlocking opportunities for creator...